Green Animals Topiary Garden
380 Cory’s Lane
Portsmouth, RI 02871
Phone: 401-683-1267
www.newportmansions.org
Green Animals Topiary Garden sits on seven emerald acres overlooking placid Narragansett Bay. In 1860, Providence mill owner Amasa Manton built the white clapboard house as a summer home for his family. Nearby were the kitchen (a separate building), icehouse, greenhouse, barn, gardener’s cottage, fruit trees, vegetable gardens, flower gardens, and pasture. In 1872 the property was sold to Thomas Brayton (1844–1939), the treasurer and part-owner of a cotton mill in Fall River, Massachusetts. Mr. and Mrs. Brayton and their four children lived in Fall River and would summer here. In summer Mr. Brayton commuted to work in Fall River by railroad. The tracks run parallel to the edge of the bay, and Mr. Brayton had his own small depot at the foot of his property.
When Mr. Brayton died in 1939, the property went to two of his children: Alice and Edward. Edward sold his share to Alice for one dollar, and she lived here year round beginning in 1940, naming the property Green Animals. Miss Alice Brayton (1878–1972) was a horticulturist, historian, and writer. She also devoted much of her time to charitable causes. Miss Brayton was active in Newport society. In 1947 she hosted a coming-out party for debutante Jacqueline Bouvier here, and some years later President and Mrs. Kennedy visited Green Animals with their children Caroline and John John. Alice never married, and when she died at the age of ninety-four in 1972, she bequeathed her beloved estate to The Preservation Society of Newport County.
The size of the house is 10,500 square feet. A visit features the sitting room, family dining room, library, parlor, and servant dining room on the first floor. The house has European and American furniture, paintings, and decorative arts. On the second floor, two bedrooms are furnished with original pieces. A special treat is an antique toy museum on the second floor, which includes doll houses, dolls, toy soldiers, and stuffed animals.
In 1905, Alice’s father hired Jose Carreiro to be the property superintendent. Mr. Carriero was from Portugal, and he remembered the topiaries he had seen there as a boy. He began to cultivate similar topiaries on the property. When he retired in 1945 his son-in-law George Mendonca became superintendent. George retired in 1985, and today the staff of the Newport Mansions maintains the gardens. The green animals have multiplied over the years, and the garden is populated with a menagerie of creatures: an elephant, a giraffe, a lion, bears (both large and small), dogs, birds, and a multitude of other animals. These were created from California privet, yew, and English or Japanese boxwood. There is also a fishpond, a pet cemetery, flower beds, arbors, reed grasses, a bamboo grove, fruit trees, and a vegetable garden (the produce is given to charity).
No visit to Green Animals is complete without a few moments sitting in a rocker on the house’s front porch overlooking tranquil Narragansett Bay.